“We play traditional rhythms, but the nature of the traditional rhythms is that there’s improvisation and a lot of room for expression,” Santos says of his music.

“Charlie Christian with the Benny Goodman Sextet on record, that was it!” said Freeman of his early influences.

Parks has battled and triumphantly come back from bouts of manic behavior that left him “getting pretty abstract,” he said, to the point that he had to cancel a tour and seek help.

“Blue Note music has been such an integral part of my musical and life experience for so long,” says Redman. “It’s surreal to be a part of this lineage.”

“There’s a lot of untapped potential in that classic big band literature,” Argue says, noting that it serves as inspiration.

​“He was the coolest,” Fortner says of Nat “King” Cole. “Didn’t break a sweat.”

The new recording from Kris Davis’ Diatom Ribbons puts the pianist front and center of the jazz vanguard. From left, Davis, Trevor Dunn, Terri Lyne Carrington, Val Jeanty and Julian Lage.

“I’ll produce my own projects,” says drummer and composer Tyshawn Sorey. “I’ll do it my way, and I’ll do it well.”

​Christian McBride and writer Ashley Kahn meet for a DownBeat Blindfold Test hosted by New York University’s Jazz Studies program.

“There is a bit of a theme — that it’s a sense of optimism and a sense of togetherness,” bassist Nick Blacka says of the new GoGo Penguin album.